Board of Directors

WIPSEN-Africa has a five-member Board of Directors that is responsible for formulating and recommending general policies and guidelines for the Network. The Board of Directors is currently constituted by:
Dorcas Coker-Appiah (Mrs.)-Ghana

A lawyer by profession, Dorcas Coker-Appiah has for over twenty years been a women's rights activist. She works at the Gender Studies and Human Right Documentation Centre (Gender Centre) as Executive Director. As one of the founding members of FIDA Ghana, she has been an active participant in all its activities since its inception in 1974, having served as vice President and then President from 1988 to 1989 and 1990 to 1991 respectively. She also served as the President of Legal Aid steering Committee of FIDA and also the Project Coordinator of the Legal Literacy and Publication committee for a number of years.Dorcas is also a member of Women in Law and Development in Africa, WILDAF, a Pan-African network of organizations and individuals with members in twenty-six African countries and a founding member of WILDAF Ghana and currently the chairperson of the African Regional Board Director of WILDAF. She is one of the key Designers of the Organisations' activities including training of legal literacy volunteers who undertake legal education in Ghana. Mrs. Coker Appiah is currently the Chairperson of the Africa Regional Board of Directors of WiLDAF. She has also served as a resource person for a number of organizations across Ghana and other parts of Africa training in gender, human rights and leadership. She also has a number of publications to her credit. Dorcas is currently serving as a member of the CEDAW Committee in New York.Mrs. Coker-Appiah has served and continues to serve on a number of Boards including Ghana Legal Literacy and Resource Foundation (1994 to date), the Executive Committee of the Christian Council of Ghana (1995-2001) and is on the board of WIPSEN-Africa.
Olufunmilayo Balogun

Olufunmilayo Balogun is a feminist, Pan- Africanist and currently the Gender and Rights advisor with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Africa Regional Office-Nairobi. Prior to that she was the Kenyan Development Manager with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), East and North of Africa Regional Office and Program specialist – UNIFEM, Anglophone West African Office, Abuja-Nigeria. She was also one time a Gender Specialist with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Lilongue-Malawi. Her experience on working on gender issues and women rights in Abuja spans nearly 18 years with special focus on women's leadership, transformational governance sexuality, sexual and reproductive rights and putting women in positions of influence.Funmi has a Masters Degree in Gender and Development Studies, Institute of Development (IDS), University of Sussex, UK (1994) and a BA in English from the University of Lagos, Nigeria(1988). She is currently on the board of WIPSEN-Africa.
Hon. Vaibah Gayflor (Hon.)-Liberia

Vabah Gayflor, as Minister of Gender and Development, facilitates and supervises the formulation of national policies and the development of programs to ensure a Government-wide mainstreaming of gender, with particular emphasis on the advancement of women and development of children. As part of her mandate, she fosters alliances among women's groups through meetings, programs and skills-building workshops. Ms. Gayflor works through the Results-Focused Transition Framework Implementation and Monitoring Committee to oversee the inclusion of women within the transitional process in Liberia. She also lobbies the Government to support police and security assistance. As chief of section of the women and Children's Affairs Coordination Unit of the Liberia Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs, Ms. Gayflor helped develop gender-based poverty alleviation and governance programs, coordinated the activities of women's NGO's and facilitated the mainstreaming of women and children's issues. She also served as domestic assistant counterpart to the chief technical advisor on the Government of Liberia to projects organised by the United Nations Development Programme for Women (UNIFEM). In this capacity, she participated in the UNDP and UNIFEM sponsored Socio-Economic Gender Analysis and Strategic Planning Workshop. Ms. Gayflor holds a master's degree in women, gender and development.